§ Mr. Peter Bottomleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what plans he has to expand the assistance which the unemployed and other volunteers can provide to potential clients of the health and social services.
§ Mr. NewtonA key feature of this Government's policies in the health and social services is the help that the community can give through volunteers and self-help groups to meeting the needs of elderly or physically or mentally handicapped people, or isolated young mothers and their children.
We therefore launched the opportunities for volunteering scheme, to expand the opportunities for unemployed people to participate in voluntary work in the health and personal social services fields, at the end of May, and allocated £2.3 million this financial year and £1 million in 1983–84 for that purpose. The scheme is making grants to some 400 local voluntary sector projects and is administered by a network of 16 national voluntary organisations such as Age Concern, Barnardos, MIND and MENCAP. This initiative has been universally welcomed for its flexibility, relative simplicity and the full participation by the voluntary sector in decisions. It has clearly unlocked much valuable voluntary work, such as encouraging people to assist elderly neighbours, or transporting elderly and disabled people to day centres and clubs. The indications are that 15,000 volunteers are involved in the activities supported by the scheme. Nevertheless, many good applications had to be turned down simply because the funds were not available.
To build on the success so far, I am doubling to a total of £5 million the amount I had intended to make available for the scheme next year. I am also increasing by a further £300,000 to a total of £2,600,000, the sum available for the scheme this year.
I am confident that the voluntary sector will make very good use of these extra resources to benefit both those who take part in the scheme as volunteers and those who receive services from it—old people, handicapped children and adults, mothers and young children and many other groups.